By Kristy Hesom
At first, Dyeshana presented a pessimistic side to his talk, saying that it would’ve been a lot easier to name his talk “What it’s not gonna take.” He pointed out that as a society, it’s easier to look at what’s wrong without offering any formidable solutions. But, true to Heavy Chef’s
style, Dyeshana not only walked the walk, he talked the talk.
Dyeshana presented the audience with four grim realities that face the marketing and advertising industry, but true to his optimistic attitude, he provided possible solutions too.
Reality #1: Our economy is poked
Dyeshana pointed out that South Africa has been in one of the worst economic periods ever, and this was even before financial minister Nhlanhla Nene’s sacking: “Sales in almost all industries are down, lack of sales plus less marketing budgets means a lot more for a lot less.”
His proposed solution is simple. “We have to work smarter.” To reiterate his point, Dyeshana screened the
Volvo campaign from the 2015 Superbowl. There wasn’t one jaw that didn’t need to be picked up off the floor after seeing this. Instead of spending their money on advertising, Volvo encouraged social media users to tweet to them to enter a competition every time they saw another car advert. This saw people focused on Volvo for free, instead of other brands that had spent millions of dollars.
Reality #2: There is less money to go around
Dyeshana asked the question: “What is the value of creativity?” Before anyone could respond, he answered: “I, for one, do not believe it can be measured in hours, but the reality is that it is.”
“We need to find different compensation methods,” proposed Dyeshana. “For example, where we charge for our solutions and not for our hours.”
He also went on to say that available technologies need to be leveraged when it comes to measuring results, pointing out that after you have seen an advert on TV, or heard it on the radio, or driven past the billboard on your way home, you are not going to ‘like’ the advert on Facebook. This metric, however, seems to be the only one people care about, and that needs to change.
Reality #3 Black people and white people do not understand each other
After everything that has happened in 2016, it seems plausible to think that black and white people don’t like each other, pointed out Dyeshana, but he quickly went on to say the reality is more likely that they don’t understand each other.
“Today we are faced with the reality that South Africans were never truly offered the opportunity to express themselves, and now we see them doing that more than ever. Those truths that we postponed are coming out, and they are ugly,” he said.
In order to propose a solution for this, it is important to look at the fourth and final reality, as they go hand in hand.
Reality #4: We are not transformed
Twenty-two years after the 1994 democratic elections in South Africa, Dyeshana believes that our county’s diverse demographics are not represented in boardrooms, and therefore, not reflected in their work.
“Our work still has no truly authentic signature that makes it feel like it could not have been made anywhere else in the world – and this is a direct result of the lack of transformation,” said Dyeshana.
In order to understand each other and to achieve transformation, Dyeshana says the solution is to have employees from different backgrounds and market sectors who can and will improve the agency’s understanding of their client base.
“Only when we get this transformation and diversity right can we start to make work that speaks to a uniquely South African narrative,” said Dyeshana. He backed up his point by showing
Santam’s ‘One-of-a-kind’ campaign, which can truly hit home for all South Africans.
There is no use in focusing on problems without proposing solutions, and solutions are exactly what Dyeshana provided with his ‘What it’s gonna take' talk.
“I have heard all of these excuses, but, at the end of the day, they are exactly that; excuses.”